Keeping local drinking water safe

Monday

These are just a few of the things that regional water authorities try to keep out of the local drinking water.

Sometimes, they fail — at least temporarily. In Ilion, for example, village officials still are working to correct the problems that led to discolored water for many over the summer.

But more often, officials say, they succeed — ensuring that the water local residents drink is of the highest quality.

With approximately 126,000 customers, the Mohawk Valley Water Authority is one of the largest water suppliers in the area. It provides water to customers in 18 municipalities in Oneida and Herkimer counties.

And that water has to meet strict guidelines, MVWA Executive Director Patrick Becher said.

"The standards for bottled water are less stringent than we have to adhere to," he said.

These standards are set on both the federal and state levels. They do not guarantee contaminant-free water. Rather, they establish baseline safe levels for human consumption, Becher explained.

"It’s an evolving science," he said, adding that research is constantly being done.

Testing requirements

Drinking water is tested for a number of substances, including volatile chemicals, synthetic organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals, radio nuclides and some unregulated chemicals. Population determines how many samples are needed per month.

The state requires the MVWA to take 100 tests a month, but the water authority does more, taking about 200 to 250 samples a month, Becher said. Beyond requiring the amount of testing, the state also can approve where the testing is done.

MVWA said it monitors 24 to 36 sites on a continual basis at various points throughout the system. These samples include raw samples — taken from the water source at Hinckley Reservoir — and finished samples taken after the water has been through the plant.

If issues are found a notice is sent out to the community alerting them of the problem and what, if anything, needs to be done.

A little more than a year ago, in August 2017, MVWA partnered with Suez-NA for the daily operation and maintenance of its water treatment plant. The partnership is contracted for five years.

Suez is an international corporation and utilizing the company costs as much as if MVWA handled the operations in house, Becher said.

"For us, it gives us a much higher level of confidence," he said.

Rome water

Another of the larger water suppliers locally is the City of Rome Water System, which supplies drinking water to about 30,000 people in Rome and in other areas, such as Floyd and Westmoreland. It also provides water to the Mohawk Correctional Facility.

Rome's water supply originates in the Tug Hill area of Lewis County. According to the City of Rome Water System's 2017 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, Tug Hill is one of the most remote and sparsely populated areas of the state.

Unlike the MVWA, the Rome system does not add fluoride to its water. Fluoride is often added to water to prevent cavities.

"That is a personal preference," said John Hill, assistant chief for Rome Water Filtration about fluoride. "Long before me it was decided they didn’t want fluoride here."

Hill added that different watersheds can determine what is put into the water.

The Rome facility also recycles its water. Used water is sent to a lagoon on site, where sediment in the water then drifts down to the bottom of the lagoon. The water is then reused for various things within the facility.

The lagoon is cleaned out once a year, Hill said. The sediment also is frozen and reused.

"Not many plants recycle water," Hill said.

State council

On a state level, New York also is doing more to help local-level agencies keep up the fight.

Brad Hutton, the state's deputy commissioner of health, said there are 3,600 community water systems in the state, not including schools and restaurants.

Hutton, who traveled to Ilion this year while they were addressing local water issues, said that in the 2017 budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo set aside $2.5 billion for ongoing infrastructure issues and to combat emerging contaminant issues in the state’s drinking water.

Part of this included the formation of a Drinking Water Quality Council, made up of state officials, academics and water superintendents. The council had its first meeting on Long Island on Oct. 2.

The council’s first task, according to a Sept. 22 news release, is to make recommendations to establish maximum containment levels for three priority emerging contaminants — perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid and 1,4 dioxane. According to the Water Quality Association, emerging contaminants are chemicals that were not previously detected in the water supply, or were detected at much lower levels, so any risks they may pose is not fully understood. The news release from the state said the three chemicals being studied by the council have been found in New York and are unregulated by the federal government.

The council also is tasked with making several recommendations to the state health department. These recommendations include appropriate timeframes and frequencies for testing emerging contaminants, best practices for public notifications and whether and when to remove contaminants from an emerging contaminants list.

In early October, Cuomo announced $200 million to address emerging contaminants in the state’s drinking water. The bulk of the money — $185 million — is available for water treatment upgrades to combat the emerging contaminants. The remaining $15 million was awarded to communities already pursuing system upgrades and innovative pilot treatment technologies. None of those were in Central New York, however.

Lead testing

While the state is doing more to address emerging contaminants, well-known contaminants such as lead are still on the radar as well.

Lead has had a renewed focus following the situation in Flint, Michigan, said Philip Tangorra, director of water quality for MVWA. Tangorra added that there is some expectation that the federal government may make some revisions to rules regarding lead.

"There’s a lot of talk, but there’s nothing solidified," he said.

The Mohawk Valley Water Authority tests for lead every three years.

Becher said lead "does not occur naturally in water" but instead comes from the metal leeching into the water from pipes. This is especially common if the water is sitting in a pipe overnight.

If people are worried about possible lead issues they should let the water flow for a bit before using it, he said. This should flush any possibly contaminated water out of the pipes.

MVWA also offers testing if customers are worried about possible contamination. Residents just need to contact the water authority's water quality department.

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